Entrepreneurship Initiatives and Entrepreneurship Skills Development in Secondary Schools in Lira City

Abstract

Background: The study investigated the effect of entrepreneurship initiatives on entrepreneurship skills development in secondary schools in Lira City. The study was conceived due to rising youth unemployment despite several entrepreneurship skills interventions by government of Uganda. Methods: Specifically, the study looked at the effect of culture, management support and adopted a cross-sectional survey design. Both qualitative and quantitative approach was employed. A sample size of 133 respondents comprising head teachers, deputy head teachers, heads of subjects and bursars in government and private secondary schools was used. Data was collected by use of questionnaire and interview guide and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Quantitative data was analyzed in terms of descriptive statistics, correlations and regression using SPSS version 20. Qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Validity and reliability of the study instruments were tested using Content Validity Index (CVI) and the Cronbach’s alpha respectively, producing 80% and 93.4% alpha values in the order; above the reconmended70%. Findings: The study found a significant positive effect of entrepreneurship initiatives (culture, management support and technology) on youth entrepreneurship skills development as indicated by an Adjusted R 2 value of 0.582. It was thus concluded that culture of entrepreneurship was being practiced, management support towards ESD was evident and technology was being embraced to aid entrepreneurship skills in secondary schools in Lira City. Recommendations: Accordingly, it was recommended that government should support building entrepreneurship culture in secondary schools by extending the youth Venture Capital Fund UYVCF) and the Youth Livelihood programme (YLP) to the youth in secondary schools; school management should be supportive to students in their entrepreneurship endeavors; and the Ministry of education and sport and other stakeholders should embrace the role of the technology in exposing students to the world of entrepreneurship by making ICT and integral part of entrepreneurship education for prior exposure of students to e-commerce concepts. Key Words: Entrepreneurship, Initiatives, and Entrepreneurship Skills, and Development